According to UFC President Dana White, Georges St. Pierre is the promotion's biggest star.

Note: Georges St. Pierre is currently on an indefinite leave from the UFC as he tends to some "personal issues". There are many people who believe that GSP is never going to return to the UFC.

So what is the biggest star of the world's fastest growing sport worth?

Dana White often says that UFC fighters (especially those at the top of the promotion's food chain) get paid way more money than people think. This is definitely the case with Georges St. Pierre, as his net worth is likely quite a bit higher than you think.

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To start, Georges St. Pierre gets paid, on average, $4-$5 million every time that he steps into the "Octagon". The UFC is forced to disclose what the salaries are for each fighter on each event, but they aren't forced to disclose what the fighters receive from PPV cuts, backstage bonuses and sponsorship money.

Let's take a look at Georges St. Pierre specifically.

The UFC publicly declared that they paid Georges St. Pierre $400,000 for his fight against Jake Shields at UFC 129 in Toronto. This payout was structured like this:

$200,000 to show
$200,000 to win

That means that Georges St. Pierre, otherwise known as "GSP", received $200,000 to just step into the Octagon, and another $200,000 for winning the fight.

On top of that, as one of the UFC's biggest stars, Georges St. Pierre gets a cut of the money that the UFC makes from their PPVs (Pay Per Views).

The UFC charges, on average, $50-$60 for a PPV. A "baseline" UFC PPV will normally attract between 200,000 - 300,000 buys, while a UFC PPV with Georges St. Pierre as the headliner will usually attract between 750,000 - 900,000 buys.

Let's do the math. Assuming that the UFC gets half of the PPV money (after paying out the providers), a "baseline" PPV is worth approximately $8.25 million to the company. A Georges St. Pierre headlined card, on the other hand, will likely bring in around $20 - $25 million for the company. On top of that, a card with GSP in the headlining fight will have a much higher "gate" (money from ticket purchases), usually in the $2-$3 million range.

So, Georges St. Pierre on a card likely means an extra $13 - $18 million for the UFC in total revenues, assuming a 50/50 revenue split with PPV providers (I'm betting the UFC gets a higher cut than this). Based on these numbers, paying St. Pierre millions in the form of a cut of the PPV revenues is a very smart business decision for the UFC.

Georges St. Pierre became a true star when he defeated Matt Serra for the Welterweight title in front of a home crowd in Montreal at UFC 83, and has fought seven times (as of the time of this article) since then. Those are some big pay days for GSP, including UFC 100, which ended up doing over 1.5 million PPV buys.

On top of that, Georges St. Pierre also has a growing list of sponsors. Everybody wants to attach their brand to the squeaky clean St. Pierre. Just some of his sponsors:

Under Armour
NOS energy drink
Poker 888
Affliction

St. Pierre also had a one year sponsorship deal with Gatorade in the past.

Now, St. Pierre almost certainly doesn't earn the $10-$15 million per year from his sponsors that some people claim, but he is certainly making millions from them.

In addition, Georges St. Pierre also has his Rushfit workout DVDs which have sold well.

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Not only is Georges St. Pierre the biggest star of the UFC, but he is also one of Canada's biggest sports stars. Georges St. Pierre has the same level of name recognition as Sidney Crosby in the country, and GSP's star continues to grow with each passing day.

St. Pierre is still in his early 30s and in his prime, which means that he has a number of prime earning years remaining. Given the growth of the UFC and the number of premier brands (including Nike) that are looking to attach themselves to the sport, don't be surprised if St. Pierre is worth close to $100 million by the time that he decides to hang up his gloves.